Well water and ph rise issue

Here's a water sample print out want to see what other people think. I've been using some of this water on my current set up befor I move to new proptery. Just wanted to see if I would run Into issues. Four strains rooted clone usual feeding for 3 weeks no issues so far. Only problem I've been having is constant ph rise in my drain to waste resi. Something I definitely need to figure out as I'm frequently gone 3 days out of the week.

i'm hardly an expert but your Ca:Mg ratio is perfect!

i'd be worried about Na.

get in touch with JR Peters nute company and send them that. they'll tell you what's up for growing cannabs.

Your water is a lot like mine, high in bicarbonates. I also keep a drain to waste res. If I mix up fresh nutes and adjust the PH, then let it bubble overnight (I have an airstone in there) my PH will be back up to 7.5 by the morning. My ppms will also rise. This is just due to the carbonates and partly due to the offgasing of Co2 from bubbling the water. PH will rise as co2 leaves, but it also rises faster depending on what type of acid you adjusted the PH with. What type of media are you using? This water will be tough to use for hydro, but it's doable with coco, and would be totally fine with soil.

@rkymtnman I didn't even think about hit up Jr dumb since I've been on the jacks train for about 5 years
@Rurumo in straight coco. Is my only solution to set up ph doseing?

Rurumo said:

Your water is a lot like mine, high in bicarbonates. I also keep a drain to waste res. If I mix up fresh nutes and adjust the PH, then let it bubble overnight (I have an airstone in there) my PH will be back up to 7.5 by the morning. My ppms will also rise. This is just due to the carbonates and partly due to the offgasing of Co2 from bubbling the water. PH will rise as co2 leaves, but it also rises faster depending on what type of acid you adjusted the PH with. What type of media are you using? This water will be tough to use for hydro, but it's doable with coco, and would be totally fine with soil.

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Exactly.

The PH rise is due to the hardness of your water. Its a calcium hardness issue and quite common. My well water is less hard then yours and I still have to PH down for two to three days before it starts to stabilize. Yours might not stabilize for much longer, or at all because your water is fairly hard compared to mine..

Its partly a matter of aeration. The more you aerate, the faster the PH will rise. Temps are also a factor. I started keeping my DTW rez at 60F or lower and that helps a lot. At lower temps, the water hold more dissolved Co2, which is carbonic acid in water, which lowers the PH.

Edit: Forgot to add - I drastically reduced the amount of aeration I do in the rez too. Im DTW running AA aero, so I dont need to do more than barely keep the rez stirred. Depending on the type of grow you have, you may be able to do the same. Less aeration = less PH rise.

@Larry3215 I was thinking of taking a resi and dropping it low like 4.0 low maybe lower and see what happens. If it takes a few days to stabilize I can work with that not the biggest inconvenience. I just need some guidance as what to try first and get it figured out. I'm moveing may 1st

Im not sure how dropping it to 4.0 would help. The plants surer wouldnt like it, and the PH would still climb back to where it wants to go - 7ish. Its like that hardness gives your water a built-in PH that it wants to be at. You have to work at it to keep it down, but the plants will still want that average to be in the 5.8 range.

I use the PH swing to my advantage. I PH down to around 5.5 or so and let it climb back to 6.2, then drop it again.

As far as what to try, its like I said above - reduce aeration to the absolute minimum. I do 1 minute every hour with an aquarium pump - no bubbles. That and try to keep the rez temps as low as possible.

AdamBlack760 said:

@rkymtnman I didn't even think about hit up Jr dumb since I've been on the jacks train for about 5 years
@Rurumo in straight coco. Is my only solution to set up ph doseing?

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what are you using to aerate? stones/air pump or a waterfall? i use a waterfall in my DTW res: airstones can raise pH

It wont matter what kind of aeration you are doing. Any aeation will speed up the C02 exchange rate and speed up the PH rise.

Back when I was doing reef aquariums there were always big debates on which type of aeration worked best. Turns out they are all almost exactly the same if they exchange/refresh the water surface area in the container equally well.

Its all about exposing more water surface area to the air. Thats it. Water fall, bubbles, fluming can all do that about equally well when done properly.

The reason is that O2 and Co2 are both fairly slow to penetrate deep into water. The thinnest thin thin thin part of the surface of the water will reach equlibrium levels with O2 and CO2 very quickly, but those changes take a looooong time to penetrate to deeper levels in the water. Thats why you need to do the bubbles, water falls, etc so that new parts of the water can be exposed to the air all the time.

The bubbles in particular DO NOT directly add/remove a significant amount of O2/Co2 to the water. Its the much larger surface area of the tank - and how fast it gets refreshed - that matters. The bubbles main function is to cause fluming or roiling of the surface - raising the stagnant water from the lower levels to the surface and refreshing that surface.

Some nutes are just more PH stable than some others. Nothing will change those properties unless you are a biologist and know why that happens. I would just try different nutes.

Larry3215 said:

It wont matter what kind of aeration you are doing. Any aeation will speed up the C02 exchange rate and speed up the PH rise

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how do you explain pH that doesn't go up with aeration?

rkymtnman said:

how do you explain pH that doesn't go up with aeration?

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Water thats not hard or nutes with strong enough buffers to counter the rise, but its mainly a matter of calcium hardness if aeration causes the rise.

I have well water with a water softener and was having ph and nute issues constantly. Turns out I need to add ph up as a buffer before any other nutes were added, even though my ph was around 7.4 out of the tap. My process is h2o2, ph up, gh hardwater micro, gh bloom, then ph down to 5.6-5.7. Rises slightly to about 5.8-6.1. Adjust as needed after that. Seems to work pretty well and fairly simple.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

I have well water with a water softener

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do you have any issues with too much sodium?

rkymtnman said:

do you have any issues with too much sodium?

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Can you elaborate please? Not sure. Water test was over 3 years ago.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

Can you elaborate please? Not sure. Water test was over 3 years ago.

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doesn't your softener use sodium pellets?

Yes it does to clean the filter. Dont think that gets into the drinking water unless I use water during the cleaning/regen phase.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

Yes it does to clean the filter. Dont think that gets into the drinking water unless I use water during the cleaning/regen phase.

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i'm not sure. i thought that it added sodium to reduce hardness which came out in the tap? if you are using it to grow plants, it must be ok.

Seems to be working.

Now a days im not 100% certain on much of anything. I can check the manual to make sure. I thought the regen flushed the filter with the sodium water which the sodium created a chemical bond with the iron and other hard minerals then flushed them into my septic tank. Good for filtering minerals but not for biologics.

Sorry Op for hijacking your thread for a minute.

Water from a softener contains sodium and shouldn't be used for plants, unless it's RO filtered.
Water softeners replace the mineral ions with sodium ions, it's known as ion exchange.